


Stars are Traitors

by aliasmajik



Series: The Destined Ones [2]
Category: Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 11:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliasmajik/pseuds/aliasmajik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She hated how the stars on the Moon felt foreign and strange.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars are Traitors

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a character piece about Sailor Jupiter, and hints at a budding relationship with Nephrite.

She had always been enthralled by the way the stars looked from the cliffs above the palace. She spent more time staring out over the rough ridges and deep valleys of her homeland than watching where she stepped; her father and brothers laughed that was why she had grown so tall. Her legs sought to move further and further, until they had grown so long that she could barely manage them. She was coltish and wild; she broke her first horse when she was thirteen, and it was that horse that she rode into battle the following year, when she rode proudly at her father's side, bow in hand.

Arduina was the only daughter of the Jovan king Cernunnos, the star in his crown. When she was presented at the Silver Court, she was but a child. When she was told she would be leaving Jupiter to serve as Princess Serenity's senshi guardian, she was fifteen. A heavy duty for one so young, but she was not unused to duty. The king's only daughter was no stranger to hard work.

She had not realized how much work being a senshi would entail. Hardly a wilting court flower, she found herself being thrown into a situation that was mentally and physically taxing. She hated her fellow guardians. She hated feeling so keenly homesick, and knowing that if she were to be sent home now, it would only be in disgrace. 

She hated looking into the stars, and feeling that they were foreign and strange. 

Eventually she would grow into the skin that she needed to have. Eventually the hate would fade into something fonder. Eventually she would find her footing, and throw herself at her duties with the same kind of reckless abandon that she had been so well known for back home. Though always quick with a "this looks like something we have back home", she would grow to like, then to love, her companions as sisters.

She was seventeen when word about Earth began to circulate. Rumors, first, and then solid information. Queen Selenity had chosen to accept a diplomatic visitor. Arduina was startled to realize that the ambassador was the Terran crown prince. He traveled only with four men at arms, something astounding. Who were these men that the Terrans thought them all the protection their precious prince might need?

Her fellow guardians were abuzz with them. They were senshi, something more than common soldiers. The strangers were called the heavenly kings. 

Arduina met the one that was her match not on the practice field, as one might expect from her, but out on one of the more isolated ridges far from the palace grounds. His name was Nephrite, she remembered. His face turned to the sky, she admired his profile. She was alarmed. Few came out here; she was used to having this place alone.

"Ah, my lady, I meant no offense." he smiled at her, though, and she felt herself tense. "I was merely admiring the stars. They look so much different here." 

She felt something bubble in her chest until she couldn't keep it back. "I know! It was terrible when I first came here! I couldn't orient myself at all!" She swallowed at her outburst, feeling suddenly shy. His smile deepened, though, and he looked back to the sky.

"You know something of the stars?" he asked. She bit her lip.

"On Jupiter we learn to navigate by them." she admitted. She admired his profile, with its strong nose and high cheekbones. 

"Many people do on Earth as well, particularly sailors. I prefer to listen to what they have to tell me." She blinked. 

"They talk to you?" she asked.

"In a way, my lady. They have many things to say. Would you care to listen with me?" She chewed her lip, but the pair of them settled in. When his arm tucked her close to his side, she didn't protest overmuch. She was struggling to listen, striving to understand what put that sense of wonder into his eyes when he cast his gaze skyward. 

He sighed, the kind of satisfied sound that only made her frown with concentration even more. "I don't hear them." He chuckled, and she rounded on him. "Are you making fun of me?!" 

He shook his head. "I would never." He stood and brushed a hand down his now rumpled uniform. She scrambled to her feet, suddenly cautious. "Perhaps a bit more patience, then they will speak to you? If they don't think you'll listen, they won't speak." 

He was gone, and she was staring after him, frowning. She'd never been outdone before, not and let the decision stand. She flopped to the ground stubbornly and stared skyward, trying to puzzle out precisely what he meant. 

Listen? Speak? Was the man just mad? She couldn't hear a damned thing. She was still grumpy, hours later, when she finally returned to the palace. She was determined to seek that man out and figure out what he was doing that she wasn't. She would master this. 

No daughter of Jupiter would ever be outdone, especially not by a Terran king.

**Author's Note:**

> Arduina is a Celtic goddess of the hunt and the forest; the name will serve as Makoto's name for the Silver Millennium.
> 
> Cernunnos is a Celtic god of forests.


End file.
